Chronoswiss Sirius Triple Date in rose gold (ref. CH 9341 R)

The Chronoswiss Sirius Triple Date (ref. CH 9341 R)full-calendar watch may be a nice choice for those looking for a vintage-styled timepiece if what they want is a timekeeper in a compact, deliciously slim body offering an easy to read dial with a classic layout and a bare minimum of complications limited to a full calendar and a moonphase indicator. Or, putting it in a more digestible form, it’s a great choice for a person in search for a classic watch with modern guts!

Presented at the last Baselworld 2010 trade show, the Chronoswiss Sirius Triple Date sports more or less traditional dial layout that you have probably seen a thousand times regardless of your brand of choice, be it a modern Patek Philippe or a vintage Zodiac.

Just take a look at the picture below and you will immediately notice the usual scheme of “Day of Week” and “Month” display windows located at 12 o’clock and the “Day of Month” indicator combined with “Moonphase” display and placed at 6 o’clock. Again, Chronoswiss doesn’t try to be revolutionary here: they use a design approach that is tested by generations of watchmakers and is loved by millions of those still owning a “real” watch.

Yes, the same design is used by many brands, including a number of recently presented collections, such as the beautiful and extremely elegant Girard-Perregaux 1966 Calendrier Complet (French for “complete calendar”) wristwatch that went on sale last year. Both watches even come in the same body size of 40 mm: a golden standard among those making classic “complicated” dress watches (although the timekeeper from Chronoswiss is 0.8 mm slimmer than the watch from GP)!

Similarities end here, though.

While the timepiece from GP uses the GP033M0 pure-bred in-house automatic movement, Chronoswiss goes the easier way employing a standard ETA 2892-A2 caliber with an add-on moonphase module and a branded oscillating weight. From a user’s perspective, this is not a problem and may be even considered an advantage by some since spare parts for the ETA calibers are a dime a dozen (unfortunately, not literary) in every part of the civilized world and there is never a lack of skilled professionals trained to fix and service the movements: something that isn’t always the case with “in-house” calibers.

The Chronoswiss Sirius Triple Date also uses different, regretfully a lot less subtle dial decoration with applied rose gold Arabian numerals and a black, bold chapter ring that makes the dial look somewhat heavy, but still nicely fits within a concept of a vintage-styled watch. The traditional onion-shaped winding crown and feuille hour and minute hands finish the picture of a watch that is intended to look like a version of a vintage timekeeper based on a pocket watch caliber minus the size.

The verdict, eh? Well, if you are into vintage watches powered with contemporary movements, then the Triple Date may well be a right choice for you, especially if you plan to stick to a version in stainless steel, which is almost twice less expensive than the version in rose gold. However, in terms of value for money, the version in rose gold may be more interesting since there is clearly less “brand name tax” included into the MSRP.

At this time, the German watchmaker sells the stainless steel version for around $8000 and the model in 18-carat rose gold retails for more impressive $16,000, which is still approximately six grands less expensive than a similarly styled Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Calendar wristwatch (ref. Q1552520) in a rose gold body.